Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn has admitted that the Oleksandr Usyk vs Anthony Joshua rematch isn’t likely to take place in the United Kingdom.

Ever since the initial meeting between the two men last September, fans have been waiting to see Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua meet once again. The two heavyweight behemoths are expected to collide this summer with late June or early July currently being touted as the timeframe for their encounter.

It initially seemed as if Usyk would be out of action for quite some time as a result of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, with the 35-year-old being given permission to leave the country, he’s now believed to be in training ahead of his second clash with AJ.

The masses had been hoping to see them mix it up in England for the second chapter of their rivalry but as per Hearn in an interview with the Mirror, that probably won’t happen.

“If contracts and site fees that have been offered come to fruition, it would make going to the UK very difficult for us to get Usyk to do, quite frankly,” Hearn said. 

“We can see it from their point of view, ‘why would I bother going back to England for half the money?’.

“We can’t take a site that pays significantly less to Usyk. We want to go to London, it would be a big advantage for AJ to take this fight back to London, but if a site fee generates double the money, there’s no way Usyk will allow us to go to London. So we do have to take that into consideration, but AJ just wants to fight.”

“We’ve had a number of offers and dates. We’re going through the contracts at the moment and we’ll see where it will be, but I think two weeks to sort everything out is a good yardstick.”

What happened in the first fight?

In front of a capacity crowd at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Oleksandr Usyk defeated Anthony Joshua via unanimous decision to capture the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles.

The smart money, for many, is on Usyk retaining - but Joshua has proven before that he can come back stronger after a defeat.